"Another great quarter," says CoStar CEO Andy Florance as Q2 Revenues hit $606M

CoStar Group continues to impress in its pursuit of Zillow with strong financial results in the three months to 30 June 2023, with CEO Andy Florance particularly pleased in his comments in the Group's latest filings.

Highlights include:

• Group revenue of $606M (up 13% YoY)
• Net income $101M (up 20% YoY)
• Record combined traffic to CoStar Group websites, 105M unique visitors in June

Other notable highlights include:

• Net New Bookings $82M - second highest in Group history
• FY23 outlook - revenues expected to hit $2.45Bn
• Cash reserves in excess of $5Bn
• Earnings per share hit $0.25, up from $0.21 in 2022

It's an impressive set of results for CoStar given ongoing headwinds in the US market, with Q2's revenue growth of 13% matching Q1's increase:

And CEO Andy Florance was also quick to highlight the company's acceleration into the number two spot for web traffic over rivals Redfin and Realtor.com in consecutive quarters:

"We achieved another great quarter of very strong results in terms of revenue, sales and traffic to our websites,” said Andy Florance, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CoStar Group. "Overall revenue grew an impressive 13% year-over-year, with Apartments.com revenue growth accelerating to 23% in the second quarter. Our sales team delivered $82 million net new bookings, which is the second highest quarter in our company's history.

"The Apartments.com team produced record results for the third quarter in a row, with net new bookings up 84% over prior year. Achieving these results despite commercial property transactions plummeting 63% in the second quarter, demonstrates the resilience of our platforms."

"I believe we crossed a monumental milestone in June when our residential network became the second most heavily trafficked residential network. We crossed into third place in the first quarter of this year, surpassing Redfin’s first quarter self-reported traffic and estimated rental site traffic. In the second quarter we moved into second place surpassing Realtor.com’s self-reported traffic for their fiscal third quarter.

"I’m very encouraged by the progress we are making with our Homes.com strategy, as our traffic growth continues ahead of our initial expectations."

CoStar's decision to go it alone and pull out of a deal to acquire Realtor.com in a multi-billion dollar acquisition is clearly paying off for now. Apartments.com revenue grew 23% last quarter—with a new set of features set to boost engagement—with Homes.com network traffic also rising by 130% YoY in June, to 38 million monthly unique visitors.

Meanwhile, the Group will 'sunset' one of its portals, Homensap, in favour of Homes.com by the end of 2023.

And with upwards of $5Bn burning a hole in CoStar's pocket for new acquisitions, its next move could be telling in the race for the number one spot in the United States.

It will take until August to contextualize CoStar's results relative to Zillow, whose financial results should come out within the next fortnight.